Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability in non-Newtonian Complex Plasma

Abstract

The Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability is studied in a non-Newtonian dusty plasma with an experimentally verified model [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 98}, 145003 (2007)] of shear flow rate dependent viscosity. The shear flow profile used here is a parabolic type bounded flow. Both the shear thinning and shear thickening properties are investigated in compressible as well as incompressible limits using a linear stability analysis. Like the stabilizing effect of compressibility on the KH instability, the non-Newtonian effect in shear thickening regime could also suppress the instability but on the contrary, shear thinning property enhances it. A detailed study is reported on the role of non-Newtonian effect on KH instability with conventional dust fluid equations using standard eigenvalue analysis.